obama says raiding taxes on upper -- raising taxes on upper income americans is not going to fix the problem that the country is facing. >> even the president got the tax rate hike he wanted understand we would continue to see trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see. listen, washington has got a spending problem, not a re-knew problem. >> for many top democrats it's all about taxes and not spending cuts in averting the fiscal cliff. >> the facts are at that point the 39.6% does produce the revenue. the differentiation between 39.6% and the 28% at that the president has for limitation on deduction creates a great deal of money as well. >> one conservative financial commentator suggests the likely outcome of the fiscal cliff talks won't be the end of the world. >> we will have taxes that are the same as the taxes were under bill clinton. we did find that we will do fine. >> the question is whether the negotiations will lead to making other tough choices such as washington getting a handle on the growth of government. if not, the european example seems to suggest fiscal t